


Unexpected Therapist

by rottenwraith



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Dreams and Nightmares, F/F, Not Beta Read, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, Sphinx Catra (She-Ra), Therapy, World Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rottenwraith/pseuds/rottenwraith
Summary: Hacking at piece of highly advance technology with a sword is not always a good idea. When the portal machine is destroyed, Catra is thrown into another world, unlike any she could have ever imagined.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra) & Princess Luna (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Catra (She-Ra) & Starlight Glimmer (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	Unexpected Therapist

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Come up with crazy cracky crossover  
> 2\. Treat crazy cracky crossover seriously  
> 3\. ???  
> 4\. Profit.

“Argh!” Cried Adora, glowing with the light of She-Ra as she brought her sword down to cleave the portal machine asunder, rendering it useless.

The Princess of Power then turned to glare at her old friend, the great ocean of patience once held for her rendered desolate my the actions said friend had taken. Catra was chilled to the bone as she began to back away.

It was at this moment that the consequences of inflicting massive damage on a delicate piece of advanced technology was not the wisest of ideas.

Great arcs of lightning began to erupt from the remains of the portal machine by the dozens, shearing through everything they touched, creating bursts of light wherever they crossed leaving smoking spheres of empty space.

All present parties attempted to avoid being struck, with some level of success.

“Adora!” Glimmer cried as she grabbed her companion, before quickly turning to Shadow Weaver, hands still linked, “Do it!”

The cursed sorceress drew upon the willing princess's energy and power, enveloping the whole group from Brightmoon to teleport them away.

In the few moments before they vanished from the Fright Zone Adora saw one sight that would come to haunt her, Catra diving between two arcs of deadly energy to find herself right next to four more arcs of lightning just as they collided...

Despite the cold rage Adora had felt mere moments ago, and all the terrible things the feline had done, there was nothing the Princess of Power could do to stop the horror she felt as she screamed, “Catra!”

And the last thing Adora saw was the smoking, empty spot, where'd once there'd been her friend turned enemy.

* * *

Catra hadn't the slightest clue what happened to her once the portal lightning hit her, all she could remember was the blinding flash, ringing in her ears and her whole body feeling like it was being electrified; Catra was very familiar with that sensation.

It felt like tumbling, falling, burning in an abyss, as darkness took her mind...

When Catra felt herself begin to regain conciousness she took in the feeling of grass on her fur and the sound of an unfamiliar voice attempting to arose her from her slumber.

“Hey are-” The voice, a slight rasp to it, was giving off concern. “Can you hear me? What happened to you? What with all the chunks of met-” Catra managed to force her eyes open for a moment, allowing her to ascertain that she was in a forest.

“Oh my gosh! You're alive, I am so glad, it would be _really_ awkward otherwise.”

“Ugh.” Catra groaned at the sudden burst of joy hoping she wasn't about to have someone try to hug her. Upon trying to move and finding (more or less) all of her muscles strenuously protesting at the prospect of movement, Catra simply forced out, “Stiff.”

“Okay, no problem, take it slow,” The voice calmed down, as it's location moved around the incapacitated Catra, “You don't seem to have any major injuries, just a few bruises.”

Managing to make it up on all fours and drawing in as much air into her lungs as possible. Shaking her head a little to try and dislodge the malaise that taken root she opened her eyes to look up at a clear blue sky, no moons visible; bit odd that.

“Okay look, I'm not good at this and I pretty sure it's rude to just outright ask like this but, your species... Are you what I think you?” Catra groaned at the question from the voice behind her, she'd never received an answer herself and the question had become very grating over the years.

“Look the simple fact of the matter is-” The Horde commander swung her head around towards the source of the voice, not expecting to find what she did. The creature was blue with rainbow coloured hair and tail, and wings that that kept in a loft despite not seeming to flap with nearly enough speed.

“What are yo-” Catra started to speak and take a step back as she noticed something off, trying to flex her hands and fingers and being met with a sensation that did not match up in her mind. Steeling herself in a moment, she cast her gaze downward, took in the sight and screamed, “What the hell happened to my hands?!” They'd seemed to have been replaced with paws of some sort.

“What are you talk- Wait, did you say 'hands'?” The strange blue and rainbow creature gasped again, “Are you from the human world?”

Catra just blinked, even more confused than before, but at least seeing the chance at some useful intel. “What do you mean, 'human' world?”

“Well a friend of mine once went through this portal thing-” That very much piqued Catra's interest, she listen intently as the flying one continued, “And she ended up in this other world, full of folks called 'humans' who had 'hands' instead of hoofs.” She (Catra was reasonably it was a she) clapped her fore-hooves together to emphasise her point.

“And she mentioned that the portal changed her into a human when she crossed over, and a human that crossed over got changed into a pony-” A fore-hoof taping its owner's chest, helped to indicate that she was referring to her own species. “So I'm guessing you must be a human, right?”

“Where I came from we have humans and lots of other species, but I'm not human.” Catra corrected the floating pony who huffed, clearly annoyed at being wrong. “So what am I now then?”

“You look kind of like a sphinx, but, well pony sized, and no wings.” The feline inwardly groaned at the floating pony's words, apparently she was not just changed into a different type of creature but a deformed one. “Never actually seen a sphinx before, don't think anyone has, but you know stories and that make it seem like they're the size if a house or something-”

“Look!” Catra cut off the pony from continuing its “I've had a rough day, week, and _month_ , so please just cut to the chase and tell me where to find some one who can open a portal?”

“Ooookay...” The pony raised an eyebrow at Catra's attitude, before pointing off in the direction of a nearby hill. “Just over that hill, town of Ponyville, look for the Crystal Castle, I'll fly ahead and let folks know your coming.” And with that the pony pulled back as though revving up before shooting off at such ludicrous speed Catra felt herself pulled forward by the rushing air.

“Ugh.” The feline took a quick look at what state her body was in now. She found that she still had fur of the same colour as normal, as well as the small marks on her arms (Forelegs?). Her hair was still intact as it was, held back by the usual steel band. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed that she still had her tail, she felt glad for that. “Better get moving...”

Just as Catra was about set off in the direction pointed out by the blue pony again came flying down with engouh speed that the air shift forced the newly transformed sphinx to skid back, “Almost forgot, I'm Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria!” Rainbow Dash did a quick loop de loop to demonstrate her stated abilities, “And you are...”

Catra waited for a moment, partly to debate with herself if giver her name was wise, partly due to already gaining a steadily growing dislike of this creature, “Catra.”

“Seriously?”

“At least it's not as dumb as 'Rainbow Dash'!” It probably wasn't a good idea to get angry at the flyer, but Catra was very cranky; memories of the collapsed portal reality and a recent encounter with Shadow Weaver were still fresh.

“Whoa, Whoa, Okay, Chillax.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before revving up once more and departing once more with a, “Later.” And another massive shift in the air; Catra was really starting to hate that.

Letting out a sigh as she once again began towards the town she'd been pointed towards, Catra took mental stock of the situation.

  * She'd been thrown into another world of some kind by the portal after Adora broke the machine

  * This other world had changed her into some bizarre four legged creature, probably not good for fighting

  * There was a portal that had was seemingly in use, but likely didn't not lead to Etheria




This was not a good situation.

As Catra made it to the top of the hill she looked down at the town she'd been pointed to, arriving as dusk approached. 'Ponyville', it seemed, was somewhat like Brightmoon in that it was very, “Ugh, colourful.” Fortunately, the castle that apparently had someone knowledgeable on portals was very easy to pick out, and seemed rather pretentious if one were to ask Catra.

“Hello, um, Catra, right?” The feline's head instantly snapped towards another one of the pony creatures, this one seemed to lack wings and was a pale pink colour. It was only as the pony got closer that the small horn jutting out from it's forehead became noticeable. “Rainbow Dash explained, so I thought I'd come out to meet you.” Once she (still reasonably sure of that) came close enough she extended a foreleg as though expecting a hand shake of some form. “I'm Starlight Glimmer, nice to meet you.”

Hearing the name 'Glimmer' in any form was not something that Catra needed right now, she stared at the limb as the seconds ticked on before the pony seemed to get the message and retract it.

“Well, I came out to make sure that you were okay and try to help, I have a little experience in your current situation.” Starlight gave a small shrug of her shoulders, trying to reduce the awkwardness of the moment. Noticing Catra's raised eyebrow, the pony decided to clarify, “You know, the whole, 'Go through a portal, and get transformed into a different and strange body' thing, been there done that.”

“You know where the portal is?” Catra latched on to the part she saw as important.

“Um, yeah, it's at the castle.” Starlight seemed awkward for a moment, scuffing a hoof on the ground before clarifying, “But I should warn, from Rainbow said it seems like it leads to a different world than yours and it may take a little while figure out how.” Starlight seemed to notice the scowl that grew on Catra's face, “But not to worry! You can stay in the castle in the mean time and me and Twilight are some of the best spellcasters around so, if anypony can figure this out in record time, it's us.”

Catra simply let out a sigh, it seemed that she was stuck in place of overly happy, bouncy and sparkly creatures, and worst of all, she was stuck relying on them. “Lead the way then.”

“Okay then, follow me.” Starlight turned back towards the streets of the town. “We should probably walk and talk a little, so you know what's what around here.”

“Fine.” Catra groaned, as she moved to follow the pale pink pony.

“Well, to start, this is the land of Equestria, populated mostly by us ponies, who are divided into three tribes. Earth ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns.” Starlight drawled on, Catra making mental notes as she followed on; intel on the locals could only help. As the speech started to drag and night fell the displaced feline noticed something in the sky that was quite unfamiliar.

“ _What_ are those?” Catra suddenly enquired, the sight bringing her to a stop, her guide likewise stopping. Starlight tried to follow Catra's eyes, but could find nothing out of the ordinary, “What are what?”

“All those dots in the sky!”

“You mean the stars?” Starlight's question was only answered by a nod of confirmation from Catra as she took in the view. The word 'stars' had nudged some vague familiarity in the feline's mind. “I'm guessing they don't have stars in your world.”

“No, just the moons.” She was still in awe of the night sky, the mass of stars and a moon a different shade then she'd seen; Catra was barely considering her responses.

“'Moons'? We only have the one, how many do you have?”

“Twelve.”

“ _Twelve moons!_ ” Starlight's shock broke Catra's trance, drawing her attention back to the pony. “Seriously?”

“Yes, now can we keep moving.” The awe of seeing stars for the first time having worn off coupled with the handful of stares from the few Ponyville civilians had returned Catra to her recent default, less pleasant, mood.

“Oh, uh, sure.” Starlight had to run a little to catch up. “I think I was about to explain about the Princesses.” Catra had to suppress a groan at that, even in another world she couldn't escape, “They're alicorns, possessing the traits of all three tribes, Earth pony strength, Pegasus wings, and Unicorn magic. The oldest two rule Equestria, the second youngest rules the Crystal Empire up north and that leaves Twilight Sparkle.” Starlight cocked an eyebrow briefly in thought, “I guess that's not counting Flurry Heart, but she's less than a year old so I don't think she quite counts.” The pony end with a slight chuckle, Catra's expression still grim from the talk of princesses. “It was a pretty big surprise when she was born, first ever pony born an alicorn, the other four all had to earn it somehow.”

“Hmm.” Catra's minor hum of interest went unnoticed, her own efforts rising up the ranks of the Horde giving her an appreciation for the idea of a princess who had to earn her powers.

“Okay, here we are. Princess Twilight Sparkle's crystal castle.” Starlight announced as they reached the doors of the immense structure.

Catra looked up at the giant golden doors adorned with purple hearts sitting at the top of a short golden staircase. The rest of the castle was like a giant crystalline tree with slightly more normal looking structures atop, cradled in its branches. All the crystal reminded Catra of the First Ones temple she followed... _Her_ into and that had taken Catra through a painful tour of her own worse memories, played for a certain someone that couldn't see the blasted obvious right in front of her face!

“Uh, Catra...” Starlight was standing at the open door, calling to the feline to snap her out of her trance. “Are you okay?”

“I'm, fine.” The tone was not convincing in the slightest, but it still made it blatantly obvious that Catra didn't want to talk.

“Okay.” After maker their way inside Catra noted the pony horn glow briefly, a matching glow enveloping the door handle as it closed. “Spike!”

“Oh, hi Starlight.” Spoke the approaching creature, this one some type of reptilian biped, seemingly an adolescent coloured almost completely purple save for line green spines. “And friend.”

“Sort of, it's a bit of a long a story, but Catra here, will be staying for a little while.”

“Okay, I'll make up a guest room.” Spike, is seemed the small lizard was name, trotted away as he stifled a yawn.

“That was Spike, he's Twilight assistant, and while he's getting a room ready, how about I whip up a little food.” Starlight explained and offered, whilst mentioning towards another room down the hall.

“Sure.” Catra likewise nodded in the same direction, indicating to lead the way. It was a short way to what turned out to be the castle kitchen; smaller than expected.

“I'm thinking you might enjoy some fish.”

“What's fish?” Catra's simple inquiry inspire the pony to look over her shoulder with a look of bewilderment on her face.

“No offence but your world sounds like no fun.” Starlight shook her head, “Fish is something from the sea that cats, sort of what like you are at the moment, often like very much.”

“Okay then.” Catra waited for Starlight to finish preparing the food, placing the 'fish' into a shallow pan atop a stove. As the smell from the cooking food hit the feline's nostrils her mouth started to water, the smell unlike anything she'd gotten from food back in the Fright Zone.

“And done.” Starlight announced as she placed the plate of food in front of Catra, who let out a shuddering breath, before digging. It was surprisingly easy to use the cutlery with her current appendages, they seemed to cling almost magnetically.

The taste was beyond what Catra had expected, beyond anything that Catra ever would've expected.

“You seemed to enjoy that.” Starlight sounded a little smug as Catra's plate was picked clean, which caused the feline's eyes to narrow in a glare at the pony. Said pony had the good sense to avert her gaze.

Still, the quality of the meal was not something she could deny, so she swallowed a small part of her pride, “Thanks, it was... good.”

“Hey Starlight, I got the guest room ready it's the one right across from yours.” Spike quickly poked his head in to explain before letting out a yawn. “And with that I'm off to bed.”

“Goodnight Spike.” The pony called after the reptilian. “Well, I'm pretty beat myself, you?” Catra wasn't feeling inclined to explain the long day she'd had of battling Rebellion princesses before getting tossed into this world.

“I guess.” Was the only admission the feline was currently willing to give, after which Starlight lead her through the castle hallways (yet more crystal), to her guest room.

“Here you go, if you need anything I'm right across the hall, you've got a bathroom right through the door over there.” Starlight points with a hoof towards a bookcase, “All the books are enchanted with comprehension spells so as long as you can...” The pony noticed Catra's narrowed eyes, indicating the obvious implication by the end of that sentence would not be appreciated.

“I mean, if your world has written language-” Starlight managed to shift reasonably well to a more tactful phrasing before she was cut off.

“It does, and yes, I can read.” Catra all but seethed out, her intelligence had been questioned a lot over her life and she didn't appreciate even accidental questioning of it.

“Well then, goodnight.” And with that Starlight backed out of the door and Catra was alone.

The room was like everything in the castle, crystalline. It drudged up unpleasant memories. In an attempt to avoid aforementioned memories, Catra immediately jumped on to the bed to attempt to sleep. As she tried to embrace slumber Catra started to again mentally go over her current situation.

Trapped in an strange world, no readily available way back, forced to rely on unfamiliar individuals for aid. At least she had shelter and a good food supply. That was something...

* * *

“ _I really am going to miss you.” Catra remembered, the words dropped over the edge of the dark black pit as easily as that fancy sword. The view down there of a blonde's hand reaching up, begging, pleading. Too late, far too late and for all the wrong reasons._

_Catra turned away._

_Catra found her hand wrapped around a lever, a lever that they said would bring the end of all things. They should have told someone who cared... A voice was pleading again, again too late and for the wrong reasons._

_Catra pulled the lever and everything vanished, gone. Naught but the abyss remained_

“ _You made your choice. Now live with it.” The words were cold. Catra turned to she Adora- No, She-Ra, blue eyes filled with such calm rage and fury. Catra couldn't move as the shinning gold clad fist pulled back and launched right at her._

_Pain exploded in her face as she fell. She found herself on a cold metal floor._

“ _Adora...”Catra whimpered as she cradled her bloody nose. She was small now, she was a child, she was weak, she was alone, she was vulnerable. She noticed where she was._

_The Black Garnet chamber._

_Catra scrambled to to run for the door, it seemed and agonising eternity aware. She made to the door to escape._

“ _Catra...” In an instant Catra couldn't move. Her body was locked. She couldn't breathe. It hurt. She was being dragged back. Back towards that voice..._

“ _A-Adora...” Catra whimpered for the only saviour she'd ever known._

“ _Adora isn't coming my dear.” The sharp hand came around to stoke her chin from behind... “She finally got smart enough to throw you away.” Catra's heart rebelled against the words, uselessly, she knew they were true..._

“ _I expected so very little of you Catra.” Catra was pulled into the air. It hurt, like she was being hung in the air by her insides. “And yet you still failed.”_

_The black magic crackling around Catra meant she knew what was coming now._

“ _Don't hold her back, keep her happy. I wish I was surprised Adora saw how worthless you really are...” The voice's owner walked around to look Catra in the eye._

_Those white eyes behind that mask._

“ _I suppose I'll just have to dispose of you personally, and since I have some free time, I believe I shall make sure to savour this.”_

“ _P-please...” Catra begged, it wouldn't work, it never did._

“ _Don't beg Catra, it just too pathetic.” The hands started to glow, wreathed in darkness and shadows as she got to ready to start the long-_

**Enough!**

Catra drew in a gasping breath as she flailed her arms looking for hand hold, find a metal guard rail. She had her hands back, she looked like she should, examining her surroundings Catra found that she was back at her old ledge in the Fright Zone, the one with the view.

“What the hell is happening?” Was the only thing she could think to ask. Till she noticed the moon in the sky, the shade was wrong somehow, but she couldn't place it. Then a shadow flew over head and landed behind her, cornering Catra with her back to the ledge.

Swinging around to look at whatever was trying to come for her. It was a pony.

“I mean you no harm, I only wish to help you, Lady Catra.” The refined feminine voice attempted to reassure her, unfortunately the person it was directed at was very unaccustomed to receiving reassurance.

“Who _are_ you?” Catra demanded of the figure as it stepped out of the shadows.

“Princess Luna of Equestria.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last thing (at least first chapter) that I wanted to get done before the final season dropped and I managed it. Phew.
> 
> Hope folks like this, comments and feedback much appreciated


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